Hello! Welcome back to my blog. I hope you are well? Today’s post focuses on the kitchen garden, my vegetable growing plans for 2019, and an update on some of the other projects Andrew and I have tackled this Spring. First, lets start with a quick look back.
It’s hard to believe at the beginning of March 2018, the kitchen garden was still bare with weed infested soil and buried rotten timbers. By June, we had four raised beds and were well on our way with our first season of crops. By October, we had six and were ready to put the vegetable garden to bed for the winter, after a successful first year. Fast forward to March 2019…
With the exception of the garlic beds, we topped up the rest with Natural Plantermix from Garden Solutions. The mix is a combination of topsoil, compost and well rotted manure, it did wonders for our crops last year. I am loosely following the ‘no dig’ gardening method, which means I haven’t dug over any of the beds. Do any of you follow this method?
A few weeks back I bought and built a new raised bed, It’s 3 x 12 feet and 21 inches high. I opted for a taller bed to trick the eye into thinking the kitchen garden is more level than it actually is. I imagine squashes in this bed, trailing over the sides amongst other crops.
So this is the garden prepped and ready for the new season, and here’s what I’m growing. Please excuse the very childish drawing!
2019 Varieties (those marked * were also grown last year)
Artichokes – Violet de Provence
Beetroots – Boltardy
Broad Beans – Stereo
Brussel Sprouts – Brodie F1 Hybrid
Celery – Victoria F1 Hybrid
Courgettes – Defender F1* – performed well last year. Over 60 courgettes from 2 plants!
Calabrese – (broccoli to us mere mortals) Green Magic F1* – so tasty
Carrots – Romance F1 Hybrid* – good cropper, lovely shaped carrots
Garlic – Iberian Wight, Carcansone, Solent Wight, Red Duke Wight
Leeks – Musselburgh*
Onions – Seeds Beresford Champion, Sets Red Karmen and Sturon*
Peas – Kelvedon wonder and Alderman
Potatoes – First Early – Rocket, Second Early – Charlotte, Maincrop – Sarpo Mira
Squash – Crown Prince, Early Butternut
Pumpkin – Munchkin Pumpkin
Spinach – Annual Banjo*
Spring Onion – Ishikura*
Sweetcorn – Lark F1 Hybrid
Leeks – Musselburgh*
Lettuce – Lambs Lettuce
I follow the RHS guide on crop rotation, which I will do a separate post on at some point. In the the meantime you can read more about the benefits of rotating your vegetable crops here.
Garlic: Left image – 4th March Right image – 1st April
The only crop out in the garden at the moment is the autumn planted garlic and a few overwintered herbs. Our last frost date here is around the middle of May. So I will continue to sow seeds and raise seedlings in the greenhouse and potting shed until its time to plant everything out. I also have a nifty propagation station set up in the dining room with old studio lights, which so far is working very well. Time will only tell if the lights have been chewing up my electricity. Eeek!
Another quick project I tackled this week, was adding a couple of archways to the space. I bought two from Amazon, they were cheap at around £11 each. They’re made from powder coated steel, so won’t rust and are sturdier than anticipated. I’ll wind twine over them to add extra support, before planting out munchkin pumpkins on one and climbing french beans on the other.
If you follow me on Instagram, you will have seen the wooden walkway added a couple of weeks ago. We used off cuts of wood we had left over and I bought the ground pegs from Amazon. I no longer have to worry about slippery gravel on wet days. Winning!
Thats it for now! I hope you enjoyed this update. Next on my to do list is to add a trough for flowers and to finish off the gravel.
In the meantime, I’ll leave you with a rare but beautiful sighting of a three headed tete a tete daffodil, planted in the rose beds last year. I’d love to know if you’ve come across one of these before, let me know in the comments below or over on Instagram.
If you’re enjoying the blog, please do subscribe. That way, new blog posts will automatically be sent to your inbox. You’ll find the subscription box on the home page. Enjoy these early Spring days. x
28 March 2019 – Daffodil drifts along the driveway
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